Title: Bad Choice of Words
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Greg Sanders/Ryan Wolfe
Fandom: CSI: Las Vegas/CSI: Miami
Rating: PG-13
Table: Crimes, mission_insane
Prompt: 7, Theft
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Greg Sanders or Ryan Wolfe, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

"I really hate scenes like this," Ryan said with a sigh as he and Greg quietly gathered evidence. "It's bad enough that a murder was committed, but to steal these people's belongings after they're dead is just adding insult to injury. I hope we catch these guys."

"You and me both," Greg muttered, not looking at the pool of blood where the bodies of the elderly couple who'd been murdered had been lying only a short while ago. The coroner had already taken the bodies away, and he was glad of that.

He hated having bodies around while he was gathering evidence; he always had. He knew that they weren't suddenly going to get up and start walking again, but they always made him uneasy. It felt as though they were somehow looking over his shoulder.

But they weren't here now, and he could get on with doing his job, collecting the evidence that they would take back to the lab and process. It was always easier to do that job when he and Ryan were the only people around; he just felt more at ease around his boyfriend.

Of course, he felt as ease with the other CSIs, too, other than Morgan -- but fortunately, Russell had realized that the two of them were like oil and water, and she didn't tag along on many of their cases now. She was usually partnered with Sara, and Greg was grateful for that.

He liked this idea of having partners, rather than people being sent out to crime scenes arbitrarily. The entire lab was capable of working well together, with whatever people they were partnered with, but it was obvious to him that he and Ryan made a great team.

He had enjoyed being a CSI before Ryan had come into his life, but being able to work with his boyfriend made his job so much more pleasant now. He looked forward to going to work every day just as much as he enjoyed his time off. That hadn't been the case before.

It was amazing what love could do, he thought with an inward smile. His life had been transformed since he and Ryan had been together; he would never have thought that he could be this happy, and this content with every aspect of his life.

Well, he wasn't happy with the fact that they still had to hide their relationship from everyone they worked with, but he hoped that would eventually change. Russell probably wouldn't change the rule, but whoever ran the crime lab after Ecklie stepped down would be able to.

Ecklie was the sheriff now, and someone else would be taking his place soon as the head of the crime lab. Greg just hoped that it would be someone who took a more relaxed view of people who worked together being able to date; if not, he and Ryan would always have to hide.

That definitely wasn't a pleasant thought, but it was one that had been on his mind a lot lately. He was waiting to find out who would be Ecklie's successor; whoever it was, he hoped that they would bend the rules a little, and that he and Ryan could finally come out into the light.

It was enough for the moment to have come out in another way, to be able to tell everyone he worked with that he was gay, and that he was in a serious relationship with a man -- even though he couldn't tell anyone just who that man was.

Of course, if they looked closely, they could probably tell, Greg thought, smiling wryly. He was sure that Nick knew, but he didn't think that anyone else had bothered to watch the two of them while they were working. No one thought that he would get involved with his partner.

Nick would never tell; he was sure of that. Nick respected their privacy, and he also knew that it would destroy Greg if he couldn't work with Ryan any longer. So he would help them to keep their relationship private, and he would be happy for them when they could finally be open about it.

"What would you do if this ever happened to us?" Ryan's voice brought Greg out of his thoughts; he looked over at his boyfriend with a slight frown. Ryan was watching him, his green eyes speculative. "I mean, if we were robbed? I don't know what I'd do."

"I do," Greg told him, a slight smile curving his lips. "You'd be pretty pissed off, you'd stomp around a lot, and then you'd call the police, and make an inventory of everything that was taken. And you'd try your damnedest to find out who did it, and put them in jail."

Ryan laughed softly, standing up and holding out his hand to Greg. "You're right about that," he said, giving Greg's hand a gentle squeeze before letting go. "It just hit me that if anything like this ever happened to us, and you got hurt, I'd be completely devastated."

"Nothing like this is ever going to happen to us," Greg said, his voice strong and firm. "Don't think that way, Ry. We're always careful to keep our alarms on, and we've got Wolfie. You know that he'll lay into anybody who comes into either place."

Ryan nodded, letting out a relieved breath. "Yeah, I should have thought of that," he said with a wry laugh. "I know that Wolfie isn't going to let anybody mess with either of us -- or with anything in either apartment. So I don't have anything to worry about, do I?"

"No, you don't," Greg said softly, shaking his head. "Ryan, nothing's going to happen. Our place isn't going to get robbed, and nobody's going to come after either of us. If that did happen, we'd be prepared for it. We're both trained in those kinds of situations."

"I guess I just worry sometimes that something could happen to you," Ryan murmured, moving closer to Greg. "If anybody hurt you, I swear I'd kill them, Greg. You've already been through way too much, before I met you. I'm not going to let anyone hurt you ever again."

"I know you won't, babe," Greg answered, his voice very soft and gentle. "And you know I'd protect you with my life, too. But if anything like a theft were to happen at either place we have, I doubt we'd even be home when it did. So you don't have to worry."

"At least we don't have to worry about something like this," Ryan said with a sigh as he looked around the place once more. "If thieves were to break in, they'd have to kill us both, because neither one of us is going to let the other one get hurt."

"That's for sure," Greg agreed, standing up and gesturing towards the front door. "Let's get this evidence back to the lab. We're going to have a long night, since we're working on two cases. But right now, I think this one is going to take precedence. The other one's at a dead end."

Ryan winced, giving Greg a wry smile. "Considering that it was a pretty bloody case, that's not the best choice of words," he admonished his boyfriend before reaching out to take Greg's hand again. "But you're right. We need to get back to the lab with this stuff."

Greg sighed, nodding in agreement. "Sorry about that. Yeah, it wasn't a great choice of words. But you know what I mean," he added, squeezing Ryan's hand before reluctantly letting go. He knew that they couldn't walk outside holding hands; someone might see them.

Neither of them looked around them again as they left the crime scene. Greg was hoping that they wouldn't have to come back -- and that ll of the morbid thoughts that had seemed to assault him while they were here would disappear into the recesses of his mind.

Determinedly, he pushed those thoughts away, knowing that they wouldn't do him any good. He had nothing to worry about, just as Ryan said. He only hoped that if he and Ryan were ever in a situation like the one they had just collected evidence from, that they would emerge unscathed.

***